League of Legends

Hello friends! It's the last patch of the year!

As with most patches following a huge shakedown like Preseason, we have a lot of changes and tweaks in this patch after assessing some of the initial data and your general feedback. We've also already adjusted the knobs on the some of the new drakes, monsters, and pacing components of the game in 9.23 that we're including again here in case you missed it. And while this is technically the last patch of the year, you may see an end-of-year "9.24b" balance...

Welcome to preseason! Hope you're ready for some big shake-ups to Summoner's Rift, expansions and overhauls to multiple item systems, and major work to a bunch of keystones. In many respects this is our most ambitious preseason in years, and we're excited to see what new picks and strategies develop in a world where the map itself changes during the game. As usual, the next couple of months will be all about establishing and stabilizing the new meta as we head toward season start, so now's the time...

We're finally one patch away from preseason AND I CAN STOP SAYING "IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR PRESEASON." If you're struggling to get to Gold like I am, let this also be a warning that you only have this last patch to get there, so good luck!

Meanwhile, URF ends in 5 days! That's right, 5 (if you include today)! If you missed the announcement on the Mid-Patch Updates in 9.21, we're extending the duration of the game mode for 1 more day. So get your cannon on until November 9, 2019 7:00PM PT.

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Hi. Happy post-10-year! Did you get to catch the team's stream? We loved getting to answer your questions, play with some of you, and work on fixing some bugs that you outlined on the Boards. Thank you for interacting with us on that very special day.

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Hi. Happy almost 10-year!

We're shipping some pretty big changes to Garen, Shaco, and Viktor this patch. Not big enough to be considered "rework"-level lists, these larger changelists are meant to excite the players of these champions, freshen up their kits, and lessen common pain points that have developed. We want to also make sure we're hitting the identities players expect of them and give them more viable and exciting playstyles that should appeal to current, past, and, hopefully, future players.

Other...

GOOD GRIEF, WE'RE FINALLY HERE. It's the Worlds patch!!

Similar to our philosophy for last year's Worlds patch, we've been making steady changes throughout the last few patches as to not completely throw everything in flux and have the pros invalidate whatever playbooks they've been developing for the most exciting event of the year. More than completely neutralizing top priority picks, we've been working on elevating more champions to competitive viability and are continuing that work in 9.19.

This...